"Mother nature" is not the coercive force that drives these teens to do the things they are required to do. These kids are purposely placed in a foreign social environment, a very carefully controlled social environment (facade), for a reason. So they can be coerced, in a way that cannot be done at home.
The coercion does not come from the challenge to light a fire. The kids aren't retarded, they know that the counselor can get in a truck and drive to Big 5 and buy a propane stove for everyone if that is what was desired. They are placed in a social environment to give the effect that it's mother nature doing the coercion, and this is what parents obviously want to believe to.
The coercion doesn't come from trees and bushes, it comes from psychological pressure manifistated through psyche invading structure of the program itself.
The first level of coercion comes from peer pressure. They force you to reveal things about yourself in front of the group (or in karens case read a letter from your parents) which gives the false sense of comraderie (again, it's forced, a facade). This is done to create a sense of peer pressure so that they can use that to force the kids to march, do stupid psychological games with the young staff, and not just sit down and not get up.
Tell me, what would happen to a kid if they just sat down, and played the "jello game" so familiar to those of us who watch small children? Well that brings us to the second level of coercion, which is no longer psychological. They will use every psychological manipulation available to them, usually they reach for humiliation tactics first and last, maybe at first they might even try some motivation. But in the end psychological manipulation can only go so far.
So what if a kid just sits down and refuses to go?
It's not mother nature who's going to be doing the coercion in that case. I don't pretend to know the answer to this question. But I wouldn't want to be a staff member if that were the case, and knowing how head strong and defiant teenagers are I would never want to be in this situation, isolaed, in the middle of nowhere.
I know parents love this torture-light bullshit, but the theory behind it is intrusive and dangerous. It seemed to work out in Karen's kids case and Punk's case. Great. I can apply this same technique and convince a group of people of anything you want me to. If I use this same technique and start some fat camps and use it to force kids to lose weight is that crossing the line?
How far can this psychological theory and technique be used to further commercial means? It would seem endless.
